Priorities for a nation

Hi people

Here's praying that everybody still has a job and has not been severely impacted by the recession.

I was recently involved in a discussion with people really close to me around what are the priorities for India as a country at this point in time given the recessionary times, given the terror threats, both internal and external, the development or the lack of it, education etc. Let me try and put in a viewpoint here on what I think should be the priorities for our upcoming nation.

I want to start off by splitting up the priorities into short term priorities and long term priorities

Short Term Priorities
1) Dismantling of terror machinery - I consider this priority as a combination of 2 parts, one, the dismantling of current terror threats through effective protection which is short term and two, dismantling of the underlying causes, both social and economic as a long term priority. So my thought is that protection against newer terror threats, both internal and external must be our top priority for now. It will require some tough steps, but it is time to step out of our moral appendages and take them, harsh as they may seem. First, any foreigner will be thoroughly checked before he enters the country aka the USA. Second, an independent agency like the IB or the CBI need to be given autonomous powers to arrest anyone on the basis of considerable doubt. To ensure independent functioning, they could report into the CVC or the SC. There may be persecution of certain individuals, but that happens anyways, so that is OK short term.
2) Economics - I call Economics as our second priority as it is economic growth that leads to social growth and stabilization. We need to work fast towards liberalization, disinvestment and increased industrialization. The world has left us behind in economics and we still claim a moral high ground of inclusive growth. A higher rate of growth will probably involve sacrifices for certain people, but it is a short term cost necessary for economic growth. Once the economic growth happens, social development will happen as has been proved in the case of the Tata's and the Birla's of the world. Lastly, the government has no business to be in business. Its high time we took out the government control and protection of the industry to make it a globally competitive one. It has worked before as with telecom, insurance etc. So we gotta believe it will work even today.
3) Infrastructure - Infrastructure, as it exists today in India is more of a show stopper than a motivation. We need to start focusing on developing our infrastructure for the years to come. Remember, Rome was not built in a day. Development of infrastructure will involve some heartburn for some sections, but it is a sacrifice that needs to be made to get India on the world map. We need more dams, we need more factories setup, we need better roads, power supply etc.
4) Saleability - We as a nation need to realise that one of the biggest strengths that India brings to the table is the skill level of its people. So given the skill level that a lot of the population does attain especially with the robust education system we have, what becomes important is the saleability of an individual. The sooner we realise that people is just another 'P' in the production mix and that people are only resources in an organization, it will be beneficial for the country. It would allow 'resources' who are not in demand to accept it and enhance their skill set to a position where they are in a supply driven market.
Long Term Priorities - I would not concentrate more on the long term priorities as they would be useful only post the meeting of short term priorities and enough has been said about them already in various forums
1) Education
2) Abolition of reservation of any and every kind
3) Social empowerment through education only
4) Abolition of Poverty by using the saleability tool described above

Eminence

Rationality in India, a myth??

Hey folks

I was talking to a friend the other day.... He very carefully warned me that the next day there was a partial solar eclipse and so I should not venture out and I should not eat anything. Neither should I eat in that time frame nor should I drink anything!!! I was appalled at the narrow mindedness of the individual.... And hey, just to set the record straight, this guy was a pass out from one of the best schools I know and is a post graduate, in guess what, sciences!!!
Then, when I began to think about this, it stuck me that, the narrow-mindedness was probably not his fault.... Those problems were probably a manifestation of all the crap that is taught in schools in India....
Please do not get me wrong on this... We have an excellent system of education in this country inherited from the British... The problem is that, it is NOT as we inherited it from the British.... What we, as a nation have added to that system is a heady mix of emotion, politics and mass hysteria.... not a very potent combination!!!!
What I am going to pen down in this para needs to be read with a very open mind.... We as a nation are used to idolizing and we need one person or people to look up to and worship. They also serve as a means to blame in case of a mishap.... Collective hysteria has rooted itself so strongly in our pea-sized brains that we try to go any heights to twist the annals of history to accommodate our idiosyncrasies!!!! It just takes some bit of extra reading and expanding one's horizons to realize that Gandhi was human, Ambedkar did not actually favour Dalits, Solar eclipses do not cause anything, Nehru was an adulterer, just to correct a few anomalies in our thinking. The worst part of all of this is that schools in our country drill all of these mistruths into a child's mind when he is at an age where the intake and retention is maximum.... The purpose of education is to provide facts and allow the human brain to make deductions, not provide deductions based upon convenient and falsified facts to encourage mere machine like thinking.
If India indeed needs to progress politically, economically and more importantly socially..... we need to come out of all these idiosyncrasies and learn to trust only facts!!!! Schools need to realize their role and more importantly, parents need to encourage the child to read and assimilate a lot of stuff on his/her own....

Eminence

Live Scores

Indian English - Part 2 - Casual References

Hello people

Part 2 of Indian English where we cover Casual references in english desi Style!!!!

Casual use of words yaar (Hindi: यार meaning - friend, buddy, dude, man, mate), bhai (Hindi: भाई meaning - brother) and bhaiyya (Hindi: भइया meaning - elder brother) much as with the American English 'man' or 'dude', as in " Arey! C'mon, yaar! Don't be such a killjoy!", "Long time no see, bhai." or "Ay, bhaiyya! Over here!" Yaar is the equivalent of mate in Australian and British English. The word boss is also sometimes used in this way, among friends but also to male strangers, as in "How much to go to the train station, boss?", or "Good to see you, boss."
Informal and sometimes coarse assignations of familial relationships to friends. For example, alliyan in Kerala, machan in Chennai, mama in Hyderabad literally meaning uncle and sala (Hindi: साला) in Mumbai literally mean brother-in-law, but are informally used by the youth to refer to each other. Targeted at a stranger, such words may take a derogatory meaning (like "sleeping with your sister").
Use of interjections Arey!(Hindi: अरे) and acchha! (Hindi: अच्छा) to express a wide range of emotions, usually positive though occasionally not, as in "Arey! What a good job you did!", "Accha, so that's your plan." or "Arey, what bad luck, yaar!"
Use of the word "chal" (Hindi: चल - Imperative of the verb "to walk") to mean the interjection "Ok", as in "Chal, I gotta go now" at the end of a phone call
Use of T-K in place of O.K. when answering a question, as in "Would you like to come to the movie?" – "T-K, I'll meet you there later." (Hindi: ठीक है Transliteration: Theek Hai, literally meaning "fine is", meaning "okay"). T-K is an anglophonic homophone of the Hindi phrase "Theek hai" similar to the French "Ça va" similar to the English phrase "Alright then."
Use of oof! (Hindi: ऊफ़ - an interjection in Hindi) to show distress or frustration, as in "Oof! The baby's crying again!"
Along with "oof!", there is also "off-oaf!" [of.fof] which is in a more whining voice which kind of means "oh, no!". Not many Indians will say this, but it is used widely in Hindi movies or soap operas. The South Indian equivalent is "Aiyo!" [əiː.jo],(Kannada: ಐಯ್ಯೊ) expanded to "Aiyaiyo!"(Kannada: ಐಐಯೊ) in proportion to the provocation. The latter phrase is the trademark of the South Indian, as caricatured in Hindi movies.
Use of "Wah" (Hindi: वाह) to express admiration, especially in musical settings, as in "Wah! Wah! You play the sitar so well!"
Use of "just" and "simply" in a seemingly arbitrary manner in southern India, especially Kerala. e.g. Q:"Why did you do it?" A:"Simply!" or "Just I was telling to [sic] him.
"Lady's finger" means "Okra" (as in some other English-speaking countries). "Brinjal" or "Bai-ngan" (Hindi: बेंगन) means eggplant or aubergine.
"Hill Station" means mountain resort.
"Hotel" means "restaurant" (as well as specifically "big hotel") in India: "I ate in the hotel". "Lodge" is used to refer to small hotels. Sometimes "Lodge" refers to a place where you stay (in rooms) and "Hotel" refers to a place where you eat.
"stepney" or "stepaney" refers to a car's spare tyre. It is also used to refer to a mistress (i.e., a "spare" wife!)
"specs" means spectacles or glasses (as in colloquial UK English).
"cent per cent" means "100 per cent" as in "He got cent per cent in maths."
"centum" is also frequently used to refer to 100.
Overuse of the word "Please" as an interjection, often over-stressing the vowel. This could stem from "please" being implied within the verb conjugation in Hindi, causing speakers to overcompensate for its absence in English.
Use of the verb "sit" in place of "located" e.g. "Where are you sitting?" for "Where are you located? (for one's location in a school or office but not home)"
Use of "chumma chumma" (Tamil: சும்ம means simply) at the beginning of a sentence. (eg. chumma chumma dont talk)
Unnecessary repetition of a word to stress on the general idea. Used mostly with words like Yes No Right Ok etc. (e.g. A: Did you finish reading the book ? B: Yes yes !!) It is generally accompanied by an emphatic shake of the head.

Indian English - Part I - Idioms

Hey guys



The last time I was in the US, I had gone to a Subway and had a pretty tough time understanding what the man at the counter was saying.... Then I leant that we in India have our own way of talking English..... Here is the first part on the common idoms that we use.....



First-class - also pronounced "fus-class" or slurred together; indicates high-quality material, used to describe many things - lodging, cars, food, drink, people.
boy/girl - unmarried persons of any age. Matrimonial ads might describe the candidate as a 'boy, age 28 yrs'. The words 'man' and 'woman' are thought to imply lack of virginity and are thus particularly inappropriate in matrimonial ads unless the candidate is divorced.
B.A. - fail - used in matrimonial ads to describe someone who did not pass the final examinations but was admitted to college and did take college classes, as opposed to someone who did not go to college. 'Higher Secondary (fail)' and 'M.A. (fail)' are similar.
B.A. - pass - used as the opposite to the above
Condoled - as in 'The railway minister condoled the families of those killed in the accident'.
max (pronunciation) - for 'Mathematics or maths'.
Gone for a six or Taken a six - to mean something got ruined. (Origins linked to game of Cricket)
Eve teasing - 'Sexual harassment'
Pre-cap - 'like re-cap at beginning of serial TV show, a pre-cap at the end previewing the next one'
Convented - 'A girl educated well in Christian convent-style school'
I got a firing/I was fired by him - 'I got yelled at by him'
Sharma sir is not here - same as Sharma-ji is not here, a respectful address. No knighthood suffix.
I will make a move now - means 'I'm leaving', not 'making a move on someone', or anything related to chess.
Where are you put up? means 'Where do you live'?. Heard often in S.India.
Where do you stay? is the same as 'Where do you live?' or 'Where's your house?'
Cheap and best means good quality at a low price – i.e. - a great deal
I don't take meat/milk/whatever - 'I don't eat meat/ drink milk' etc
It is worst - 'It is really bad or of very poor quality'.
She is innocently divorced or divorced (innocent)- not the party at fault, or the marriage was not consummated..
Wheatish complexion - Seen in matrimonial ads. Means 'not dark skinned, tending toward light'
"What is [your] good name?" to mean "What is your full name?" is a carryover from the Hindi expression "Shubh-naam" (literally meaning "auspicious name") or the Urdu "ism-e shariif" (meaning "noble name"). This is similar to the way Japanese refer to the other person's name with an honorific "O-" prefix, as in "O-namae" instead of the simple "namae" when referring to their own name. Such a questioner wants to know the person's formal or legal given name that may appear on a passport, as opposed to the pet name they would be called by close friends and family.
"Out of station" to mean "out of town". This phrase has its origins in the posting of army officers to particular 'stations' during the days of the East India Company.
"Join duty" to mean "reporting to work for the first time". "Rejoin duty" is to come back to work after a vacation.
"Hello, What do you want?": used by some when answering a phone call, not perceived as impolite by most Indians
"Tell me": used when answering the phone, meaning "How can I help you?"
"send it across" instead of "send it over", as in "send the bill across to me" instead of "send the bill over to me".
"order for food" instead of "order food", as in "Let's order for sandwiches".
"What a nonsense/silly you are!" or "Don't be doing such nonsense any more.": occasional - idiomatic use of nonsense/silly as nouns (although this use of nonsense is not uncommon in British English).
"pass out" is meant to graduate, as in "I passed out of the university in 1995." Or it could also mean to be fast asleep.
"go for a toss" is meant to go haywire or to flop, as in "my plans went for a toss when it started raining heavily." Another cricket analogy.
"funny" is meant to replace not only "odd"/"strange" but "rude"/"precocious"/"impolite" as well. "That man was acting really funny with me, so I gave him a piece of my mind"
"on the anvil" is used often in the Indian press to mean something is about to appear or happen. For example, a headline might read "New roads on the anvil".
"tight slap" to mean "hard slap".
I have some doubts - 'I have some questions'
Timepass - 'Doing something for leisure but with no intention or target/satisfaction' For example, "Hows the movie?" reply - "Just timepass man... nothing great about it."
"maximum" is used where many other dialects of English would prefer "most."
Divorce (with the emphasis on the i as in pronouncing the word eye) same meaning but different pronunciation
Boss used to refer to any person, regardless of a superior at a place employment, as in (to a waiter) "Boss, come here, [take our order]."

Supreme decisiveness vs Sickening indecisiveness

Hello ppl

Too verbose a title!!! Well.....could not think of anything else to compare 2 nations' reactions to the same external stimuli. One, a nation of hardly a million people and a size not to be too proud of... and the other, an international behemoth... the cynosure of all eyes..... The world's fastest growing economy and largest democracy..... The stimulus - the same - meaningless terrorism.... For all the Einstein's who have not guessed it yet, I am talking about India and Israel.

Israel - One of the smallest countries in the world and also one of the newest countries in the world (Independence 1960s). Their only claim to the land that they are settled on is that their founding father Abraham bought that piece of land centuries ago for 400 silver coins. Surrounded on all sides by formidable enemies in Palestine, Egypt, Syria etc. Located in one of the most volatile regions in the world......
India - A global behemoth, the largest democracy in the world, a culture that has remained unchanged over more than 10000 yrs... established social structures, an economic powerhouse et al... Only major formidable enemy - Pakistan
Pakistan, Palestine - 2 examples of rogue states whose basis of survival is sponsor of terrorism and whose claim to fame is continual neglect and feigned ignorance of international norms.

The Reactions post attacks from the respective stimuli....
Day 1 (T+1) - Israeli government condemns the attack even as the air force starts aerial strikes in Gaza. In India, we start our discussion......
T + 2 - Israel continues the aerial strikes while no foreign power except France condemns the attacks. In India, we continue our discussion.....
T + 3 - Israel starts to launch ground attacks at Gaza... Troops move in to take control over Gaza and start moving towards the southern border. In India, we continue our discussion...
And so it goes on...... Israel keeps doing what they need to do while keeping the international community at a distance and we keep discussing......

I am tempted to compare similar reactions at Entebbe vis-a-vis Kandahar......

What comes out starkly is that we as a country, as an economy lack the balls(apologies for the language) to take any decision whatsoever...... It sickens me to realize that probably 3 yrs down the line when I write my blog, India would still be discussing the military option!!!!

What a joke!!!!!

Eminence

Recession Pangs!!!!

Hi Folks

Wshng al my redrs a vry hppy nu yr.......

In case you are wondering why.... Cost Cutting my friend, Cost Cutting.... lesser words, lesser efforts, lesser time spent and as they say time is money.....

Recession, Recession.....seems to be all I hear nowadays everywhere right from the corporate honchos on TV, news channels (but of course), company execs, leadership, colleagues, my newspaper guy, teashop owner everyone!!! I believe New year celebrations across the country were pretty muted due to the R-word.....

Suddenly, increments, bonuses and all the other perks that every employee enjoyed even without working is all going down the drain for no fault of theirs.... It is lately in vogue just to have a job!!!

Governments are pumping money into the economy, inflation is at an all time high, real estate is as cheap as it can get, banks are facing the crunch etc etc.... the list seems to be endless....

Cant think of anything much else to say as enough has been said and discussed about this topic.... Just wanted to pen my observations. Apologies to those who thought that this was going to be another flurry of expletives and people bashing.....

Here is hoping that 2009 turns out to be a much better year and provides scope for all of us to see more bonuses, increments and all the other works!!!!

Eminence....

Needless Information!!!

Came across some useless info on the web........

1) If you went out into space, you would explode before you suffocated because there's no air pressure.

2) More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.

3) Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."

4) Medical researchers contend that no disease ever identified has been completely eradicated.

5) There are 240 white dots in a Pacman arcade game.

6) Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.

7) Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

8) About 35% of all right-handed people eat with the knife in the left hand.

9) Caligynephobia is a fear of beautiful women.

10) The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F.

For more, go to http://www.unnecessaryknowledge.com/

Eminence!!

News Exclusivity...... Politicians.... What a Joke!!!!

What a Joke!!!!!

You are reading about the largest terror attack on a sovereign nation, the description of a gory bloodbath and the death of 200 odd people exclusively on this blog!!! Don't I sound like an egomaniac along the lines of Barkha Dutt, Arnab Goswami, Rajdeep Sardesai et al.... And please note, I am naming these 3 people for a very strong reason..... that being that these are the only people from whom you would expect some integrity among the sludge of the Aaj Taks and the India Tv's, the filth of Indian media....

My faith in the 3 people above and therefore in the whole of the supposedly unbiased English media stands shaken to its foundation today.....

'We are showing you exclusive footage of the NSG Commandos getting off on the roof of the Nariman House....' This must have been an image and a comment that all of you remember from 26th November... Well, ya I forgot, the terrorists had come from the dark ages to kill and maim us...... so probably they did not know the advent of a freaking Television set.... Duh!!!!! Let security go for a toss as long as I am getting my TRP's.... Wow, what an attitude!!!

Remember, Barkha Dutt who etched a strong memory of the Kargil war in 1996 in all of us Indians as a brave woman on the army front?? Well, did the same Barkha Dutt undergo so much of a change to reach the annals of patheticity (new word coined to display frustration) in television reporting in 12 years.....??

Rajdeep Sardesai, one of the most neutral anchors in the Indian media thus far??? Stooped to such levels today!!?? Appalling but true!!

I think all media channel reps must first be assembled, their face blackened and then they should be paraded on donkeys through cities and towns!!!! It will probably be the largest congregation of donkeys ever assembled this side of the border.......

And we say that politicians need to be done way with for this country to be a safe place!!

What a Joke!!!!

Eminence

The Dark Ages!!!!!

What a joke!!!!

Ever wondered how the dark ages were or ever felt like spending time in the dark ages........ ??? Come to Pune, the Oxford of the East, the Detroit of the East, and the best city in the world as all Puneites will tell you.....

We all staying in Pune today are pretty much living the dark ages yet again in the new times!!! 8 - 12 hours of powercuts every single day!! How do you like that?? Its like a slap on the face of all us professionals who have come from near and far...... Everyday, the surety of a loss of power for more than 7 hrs is comparable to the rising of the sun!!! The latter may not happen someday but the former will surely happen!!!

And what is the only word of the solace that the nincompoops that we call the government has?? That Pune will have adequate power by 2012 as plans are on to work towards that date!! Man, am I happy or what!!! 2008 - 2012 seems to be a small amount of time for someone, but in this day and age, staying without power for even an hour seems like a year... So do the arithmetic yourself.... We are probably going to surpass the dark ages!!!

So guys and gals in Pune........ be happy as this situation is only temporary..... Improvement is coming soon in 2012!!!

What a joke!!!!

Eminence....

India - US, the biggest difference......Respect

Hey people

I do not want to haggle on about the recently concluded US elections and how Obama won etc....

I just want to make a small observation and I am sure some of you will agree with me.... I was impressed with the speeches of McCain and Obama after the election results were out, more so with McCain.... The sheer calmness with which he stated that,"till yesterday Barack and me were contesting in an election - today he is my president along with the rest of the country and therefore I will do my best to support him in all endeavours that he might undertake....." Awesome!!!! Compare it with the Indian elections circa 2004; L K Advani on losing the election remarked,"Let us see how long this government lasts....... etc etc..."

Call me an America lover or whatever, but I believe that if there is anything that we as a nation need to learn from the US society, it is respect for the fellow human being..... It hurts me greatly to admit that in spite of harping about the greatness of Indian culture etc etc., we have failed to achieve the single most important characteristic of a civilization - respect for the individual....

Now a lot of opponents might say that the show of respect in the US society is just a farce...Well so be it...at least they maintain it effectively... In our country, we are not even accustomed to use simple words like Thank you or Sorry.... We tend to think arrogance is our birthright and we always have it....

When was the last time I stood on a decent queue, I do not remember......

Leave you to ponder on it....

Here's saluting respect for each and every one of us......

Eminence

The Bengal Tiger finally becomes extinct...

Hi people

Good news everyone!!! Here comes one extinction that I am extremely proud of and I was looking forward to....... The departure of Saurav Ganguly..... Yipee!!

While we all know that Ganguly was perhaps India's most successful captains ever, in the emotion of his retirement, there are a lot of mistruths being quoted out there.... Here is my attempt at setting the record straight....

1) Youngsters in the team blossomed under his captaincy - Let me state that youngsters, however young they are, are not fools!!! They blossom because they need to in order to maintain their spot in a competitive environment of Indian cricket!!! How many people give credit to Kris Shrikanth, Kapil Dev and Azhar because Sachin matured under them. He matured out of his own self interest and of course with age....

2) He has taken Indian cricket to a different level - Well, with the times changing, Indian cricket had to change at some point of time... The Indian team underwent a change not because of him but in spite of him!!!

3) He brought aggressiveness in Indian cricket - Aggressiveness existed in Indian cricket. He just put it in a new box mainly through display of his arrogance, amateurishness and rudeness.... Making an opposing team captain wait at the toss is no display of aggression... It is more a display of stupidity!!! Removing and playing around with your shirt at the temple of cricket, Lord's is no display of aggression.... it is sheer disrespect towards the home of cricket....

4) It is against public opinion - Agreed if Bengal made up the whole country.... Why the whole of Bengal seems to rally behind him is pretty logical to me...you see, he is probably the only good thing that came out of Bengal after Tagore.. So they are bound to be emotional... And hey, public opinion cannot drive national selection and statistics are not on Ganguly's side....

5) He is the greatest left hander that India ever produced - Incidentally, I agree with this statement. Though I would like to know as to how many successful left handers has this country produced.... 5 , 6, 7... Well best among them is an achievement?? Well....ok....

Call me blasphemous on reading this post, bu somehow somewhere I know that at least someone is on my side....(the former chief of selectors and Andrew Flintoff!!!!)

Eminence

Review - Hello!! or Hel(l)(N)o!!

Watched Hello!! yesterday...... 10 minutes into the movie, you get to realize why the name of the movie is Hello!! It is, I guess to ensure that people do not leave the cinema hall halfway.... You continuously hear Hello Hello!! Anybody there... Hello!!

Jokes apart, a truly horrible effort at trying to make a movie out of a book. For those of you who liked 'One Night at a call Center', by Chetan Bhagat, you will hate the movie..... And for those of you who did not read the book, you will hate the movie!!! The only thing that stands out at the end of the movie is the solace in the fact that Atul Agnihotri is a consistent guy. He is as bad at directing as he ever was at acting.... (Remember the song on the bike??!!)

Well, the movie starts off with an item number by Mr Khan with mind bogling lyrics as 'Bang Bang Bang, Boom Boom Boom'!! (what was he thinking!!) After the item number, he gets ready to leave when his departure is delayed due to a technical fault with his chopper!! While sitting there, Katrina Kaif sits next to him as she needs to use the charging unit for her laptop and that is the only place where she can get it. She then starts off the narration of a 'oh so pathetic' story on the consition that Mr Khan makes a movie out of it.... (aka Tere Naam)

Focus shifts to Connexions, a fictionary call center in every sense of the term..... It is a rainy night an everybody is getting ready to get to their shift in time. And whether you believe it or not, everybody has his sob story in life starting from the supervisor Shyam, son of divorcees Vroom, the ever dutiful wife Radhika, aspiring model Isha, aged Military uncle and the soon to be married to a NRI gal, Priyanka. They are all part of the same team which handles Customer care calls for an appliance company... They are all cribbing about their lives at work when we get to know that Shyam and Priyanka were going steady before they broke up and Vroom likes Isha.... Between all this, there is news of employee retrenchment by their manager Mr Bakshi, an America loving SOB manager.... Due to a system issue and rise in tempers, they all decide to take a break from work and go and booze before making their way to office... (Wonder how!!??)

On the way back, Vroom is drunk and so eh crashes through a construction site, the car thus ending up at the very precipice of an under construction 'something'(Never got to know what it was!!) here, amazingly, none of them are able to get any signal on their mobiles... And then God calls!!!!!

Most of the conversation is one sided and illogical.. Basically God asks them to stand up for themselves and follow their mind in what they do. After all this they go back to office, teach a lesson to Bakshi and stop employee retrenchment....

The way they stop employee retrenchment by increasing calls is phenomenally crazy!!! During a fire drill the same night, Shyam and Vroom convince everybody assembled that they ahve to receive more calls to enable retention. Therefore, the suggestion, call up all customers and tell them that there is a mysterious virus attack on the US through appliances (whoa!!) and by keeping on calling, they can somehow annhiliate the attack!! (Basic premise here is all Americans are dumbasses!!!!) And thus all is well that ends well.

And hey btw, if you are not bored by the sheer idiocity of it all, you come to know at the end that Katrina is God!!!! My God!!!

The movie to talk about in a few words is a slap on the book, a slap on the faces of each and every employee of the burgeoning back office industry through its potrayal and and therefore deserves a slap on the face of Mr Agnihotri, Mr Bhagat and all of the cast!!!!

Even if you are supremely bired, I suggest you watch a crappy movei on Zee Cinema or Set Ma rather than sitting throught his joke of a movie!!!!

Eminence

The White tiger...Mans Booker winner 2008

Hey All

I know its been a long time since I was here......

All of us must have seen the latest news, Aravind Adiga, another Indian won the Mans Booker Prize for 2008 for his book, 'The White Tiger'. I made it a point to buy this book as soon as I heard about it because it promised to potray a side of India nobody knew about....

The book starts off on an altogether different note... This guy Balram Halwai is writing a letter to Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier as he hs just heard that the latter is visiting India. He spends a better part of the first chapter cynically pointing out the various things that will be shown and provided to the Chinese premier as part of the official protocol.... He goes about therefore starting to explain what his India or the real India is like....

In a nutshell, Balram Halwai is a guy who starts his life in a not-so-important village somewhere in rural India..... He then describes his life as a toddler and a young man talking about the hardships that any young man faces in rural India even today... There are the regular cliches about right and wrong, poverty, lack of Infrastructure, zamindari etc...

Following this sort of childhood and with a stroke of luck, the guy lands up as a driver for a former zamindar.... Here, he works his heart out but the rough upbringing has resulted in a sort of covert brutality and roughness in the guy... He starts observing the life of his master in the city and also starts to dream big...

In a quest to achieve this greatness and to get rich quick, this guy murders his husband on a lonely night.... and then starts his escape from the arms of the law.... Thus carrying on , he finally reaches Bangalore, the IT capital of India...

The end of the novel shows Balram Halwai running his own Call Centre cab company and as a rich man, who on his self reflection believes that in spite of all his money, he is still missing something and that is a guilt free life....

Overall,an awesome read.... Truly shows a lifestyle that you never know existed in our country... A must read for the youngsters (20 - 40)...a large bracket, I know!!

Eminence

Geographically Divided, Historically Seperated!!!

In the course of my endless and mindless pursuits in the evening yesterday, I seem to have glanced up from my laptop towards an India map on the wall as Prabhu Chawla was trying to allow one of his guests to speak, forget who!!! And I was staring at that map, a lil thought crossed my mind...... If I were to draw a line beginning from somewhere near and in the whereabouts of Varanasi and extend it diagonally across UP, through Jharkhand and into the Arabian Sea, I would have single handedly ensured India's GDP growth at 12 - 13% instead of the 8% we are at now!!! I somehow saw 2 Indias on there.
On the one side which I shall henceforth call the front side (for some strange reason), you had pretty high literacy rates, pretty decent mortality rates, pretty good growth numbers etc as compared to the national average. On the other side, which I shall call the backside (for obvious reasons) you had dismally low literacy rates, abysmal levels of mortality and growth numbers better not shared in a public forum.....
If you have agreed with me so far, then will it be too far from the truth if I said that 30% of India is pulling back 70% of India from realising its true potential... (Pareto Zindabad!!)
Because whether u agree or not, it is true!!!! States like UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal (yes, West Bengal) are pulling India back to the Hindu Rate of growth days. Well, we all know UP, Bihar, Jharkhand et al but West Bengal must be shocking to you...... Even if it is, please do not call a bandh..... pleeaasssssseeeee.....
When did you last hear a news that read, 'New factory comes up in West bengal', or 'Bengal top state for FDI in India'. Well, I have never heard any. I somehow cant relate West Bengal and development. I dont think anybody can. It is very saddening to note that Bengal was once the seat of Imperial power in India. But the problem started when Bengal never came to terms with the fact that the British had left.... Sad but true..... In a lot of other places, Mumbai for example, the Gateway of India was a hisorical monument and a place worth seeing, so was Victoria Terminus. Today, people still go to see these two monuments but what they also go and see is the Bandra Kurla complex (BKC)... Well, my great grandfather's greatest memory about Bengal was Victoria memorial and my greatest memory about Bengal....Victoria Memorial... That is sad...
And to add to that, we have a group of nincompoops in power sitting on their nest laying eggs of wisdom which nobody wants!!! Ever wondered why they are called the left.... not because of their ideology, but I think they are called more so because they are never right!!!! Cos I am a 100% confident that Karl Marx did not see it this way....Whatever little was there to grow and develop on the left made sure it never reached the right places at the right time.... The idiots!!! They then come in at the Centre and make sure they screw things up for everybody....
It is not that Bengal lacks opportunities. The opportunities are there...loads of them.... If it lacks anything, it is the will to succeed and for that will to come to the forefront, Bengal will have to come out of its mummified exterior and realise that it is the 21st Century and things work differently... It cannot afford one more Singur or Nandigram..... What also needs to happen is that the lefts need to be thrown out and thrown out in such a way that they do not dare to contest again...... I think the logic of using the left to clean sh** is in our way of life.... but hey the left is itself in so much sh** and 2 lefts will never help!!!
To continue from where I left off, if Bengal were to improve its GDP growth to atleast around the national average, it would help us as a nation.....

Analysis of other states in the BIMARU to come soon.....

Eminence signing off!!!!

Frustrations Unlimited!!!!

I am back.... after a longer hiatus this time around.... 6 months....I am becoming a semi annual blogger nowadays!!!

Anyways, cutting to the major story of the day.... An another sect in India ended up getting 5% reservation yipee!!!! India has matured that much more as a democracy today!! A thought just struck me on reading about the whole fiasco about the issue. I have already iniated the process of getting all of my family together for this protest that we plan to have on getting some reservation for the P family..... I figured that if the world really did start with Adam and Eve, the P family (extended) must atleast have a half a million people, far higher than the small community that got 5%. I am sure we will manage atleast 8.5% - 9%. All it takes is blocking a couple of major roads, burning some public transportation and the likes.... In my home state where I got educated, if we did get 9% reservation that would mean 69% to one caste plus 12% for another plus 3% plus our 9%..... Darn!!! Still leaves about 7% untouched.... Gotta think of something for it.....

Any other family interested..... 7% at stake..... Contact us....

And to think that all of these were oppressed castes...... Tch tch.....

Eminence

Back with a Bang!!!!

Hi everybody.....

The Eminence returns.... With a bang!!!! Been a long time since my last post.... around 8 months now!!! Just goes on to show the excitement in life at this point in time... Nothing...absolutely nothing to look forward to!!!
Its marriage season in Delhi and Gurgaon.... and I have been attending marriages for some time now.... And every time I attend a marriage, my faith in myself diminishes by a teeny weeny bit and I start thinking as to where the H#$% am I headed and what am I doing and the most dreaded question...where I see myself in 5 years from now!! During my first job interview, when asked this question, it was a piece of cake as we had rehearsed answers.... but after spending 2 years at work, I think I will still have the need to rehearse answers for these questions, because, simply put... I still dont know... I neither know what i am doing, why I am doing it...and I am trying to find myself in a timeframe 5 years from now!!!

Will keep you posted on where I find myself!!!!

Cheerios!!!

Review - Water

Am back after a long time!!!!

Watched Water over the weekend.... A suggestion before you watch the movie- if you think you are frustrated cos you feel discriminated, pls watch this movie.... It will make you think that you are the luckiest person surviving on this earth and in this country... Based in the early 30's, this movie is about the plight of widows then and also explores the idea of widow remarriage...
Halfway through the movie, you begin to get disoriented because we have been told all through our lives that India had a glorious history etc... but one look at this movie takes you to that medieval era in Indian history which could aptly be termed as 'the Dark Ages' of Indian society...

Performances are outstanding as expected... . Seema Biswas, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Lisa Ray (She looks hot as well!!!), and John Abraham.. all have given good performances that make the movie an all in all good movie which at the end of it makes you sit back and think.... on a lot of things....

Was just wondering, if a movie that got nominated for the Oscars and did not win was so good, how good would the movie that won be??? Leave you to munch on that!!!

Regards

Another weekend!!

And hence cometh another Monday!!! And why!?? I do not know!!

Had a pathetic weekend.... Started and ended with India vs Bangladesh on Saturday.... What a disgrace!!!! Pathetic.... It was a naked display of the gross stupidity that the Indian team brings to the table amidst its other capabilities like hypocrisy, idiosnycracy, over confidence and bullshitting!!! A suggestion here... Why not ban the Indian team from all forms of cricket for , say, 10 years..... This would allow stalwarts like Dravid, Sachin and Sehwag to train their sons to come and play for the country!!!!!

To engage myself in other activities, I watched two movies over the weekend,......

The first one on Satuday was '300'.... A great movie on the resistance of a few hundred men to the whole Persian Army..... Was a very well shot movie and had some amazing dialogue delivery and screenplay...... Came to know that the Oracle was a creation of the Spartans and then she was quite young..... Guess that is why she was really old in the Matrix trilogy!!!! :) The only disonnect is that she seemed to change along the way from a blonde to an Afro- American!!!!!

Watched 'The Pursuit of Happiness' on Sunday... Nice movie....A really great performance from Will Smith. He seems to have come along way from Bad Boys!!!

Will signoff now in the hope that India shall beat Bermuda in their encounter today!!! Keeping my fingers crossed!!!

Regards

Visual DNA

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